Japanese–English Translation

An Advanced Guide

Judy Wakabayashi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000192391
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Sprachen & Linguistik
• Subtopic: Sprachen

This volume is a textbook for aspiring translators of Japanese into English, as well as a reference work for professional Japanese–English translators and for translator educators. Underpinned by sound theoretical principles, it provides a solid foundation in the practice of Japanese–English translation, then extends this to more advanced levels. Features include:

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• 13 thematic chapters, with subsections that explore common pitfalls and challenges facing Japanese–English translators and the pros and cons of different procedures

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• exercises after many of these subsections

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• abundant examples drawn from a variety of text types and genres and translated by many different translators

This is an essential resource for postgraduate students of Japanese–English translation and Japanese language, professional Japanese–English translators and translator educators. It will also be of use and interest to advanced undergraduates studying Japanese.

1Words

Translation—particularly of non-literary texts—is primarily about communicating the meaning after considering the intended function of the original text and that of the translation, as well as the intended readers. It does not mean transcoding one language into another or finding equivalents for individual words. Translating at the word level can result in unnatural renditions or distort the meaning, particularly between such linguistically and culturally distant languages as Japanese and English. Nevertheless, words do constitute the building blocks of sense, and it is on this level that novice translators tend to focus, so words merit attention. Ultimately, however, translators need to focus on how best to convey the meaning, whether as an individual word or a larger unit, in a specific textual and situational context (e.g. the time, place, intended readers, level of formality).

This chapter discusses techniques for handling recurring word-level challenges when translating Japanese to English. Chapter 2 discusses the translation of groups of words, and other lexical aspects are dealt with as relevant elsewhere (e.g. lexical ambiguity, euphemisms and jargon in Chapter 7; gairaigo, wasei eigo and ‘false friends’ in Chapter 11; mimetic expressions in Chapter 12).

Beyond dictionaries

Bilingual dictionaries and glossaries are an indispensable resource for translators,¹ but sometimes a word in the source language (SL, the language being translated) is not listed or the suggested equivalents are inappropriate for a specific context. In such cases, alternative approaches include the following:

•Consult monolingual Japanese dictionaries to determine the meaning, and use that as a basis for an English rendition.

•Do further research in reference works, including on the Internet, and in parallel texts—texts that have “the same or a similar function, target audience, and context of use in the target culture as the text the translator has to produce” (Vienne 2000: 97).

•Examine the surrounding text and situational context for clues as to the meaning. It is helpful to test possible equivalents in the light of the context, although what seems to ‘fit’ best might not necessarily be the correct meaning.

•Ask other translators for help. The Honyaku group for Japanese–English translators (http://groups.google.com/group/honyaku or on Facebook) can be very helpful.

•Consult native speakers of Japanese. Not all native speakers are equally sensitive to linguistic nuances or concerned with exactness of meaning, however, so choose informants carefully and give them adequate time and information to provide meaningful feedback.

•If research fails to help, it is not unprofessional to ask the client for assistance.

•Write the Japanese word in romaji only if other solutions are not feasible or you decide to introduce the expression to English readers because it is a key word or to add ‘Japaneseness’, for instance. See the next section for further discussion.

•Coin a new word. This is usually a last resort, as the neologism might lack transparency and add a burden to readers. See later in this chapter for discussion of neologisms.

Even with well-understood expressions, it is not always easy to think of an appropriate English equivalent. In such cases deverbalisation is useful. This involves distancing or disengaging yourself from the Japanese linguistic form, focusing on what the expression means in that context, and expressing this in natural English. This might lead to a rendition that is not a one-word equivalent: 余裕 can be rendered not only as bandwidth, latitude, leeway, leisure, play or wherewithal, but also as breathing space, elbow room, freedom within limits, luxury of, margin (for error), mental space, room for, room to breathe/maneuver/move/spare, scope to, wiggle room. Deverbalisation sometimes results in a different part of speech, such as can afford to or open to for the noun 余裕.

余裕ありそうだったら…

(角田光代『対岸の彼女』 2007: 206)

If it looks like we can swing it …

(Lammers, Woman on the Other Shore, 2007: 173)

… 子供たちと遊ぶ余裕もちょっと出てくる。

(よしもとばなな『みずうみ』 2005: 126)

… things had settled down enough that I could horse around a bit with the kids.

(Emmerich, The Lake, 2011: 109)

Deverbalisation is useful not just with individual words, but also longer expressions:

「保険婦さんもおしゃぶりのこと、ああだこうだ、上からもの言う口調で言うしさ。」

(角田光代『対岸の彼女』 2007: 98)

Plus I got plenty of grief from the public health nurse, too, lecturing me up and down about the thumb-sucking like I better jump when she says jump.

(Lammers, Woman on the Other Shore, 2007: 81)

Paraphrasing is another useful technique, although it can result in “a translation that can be described as loose, free, sometimes even ‘undertranslated’” (Chesterman and Wagner 2002: 62) if the translator is not careful to convey the content fully. An initial paraphrase can often be tightened into a more concise expression—although one-to-one equivalents are not always necessary or desirable, and a single Japanese word might be best translated by a phrase in English. (Conversely, Japanese phrases can occasionally be rendered by a single English word.) Paraphrasing a Japanese expression into different Japanese (intralingual paraphrasing) can be a useful preliminary to an English rendition.

Modulation can also be helpful when there is no suitable one-to-one equivalent, or simply to produce a more natural rendition. This procedure involves describing the same reality from a different perspective (e.g. cause→effect; means→result; part→whole; abstract→concrete; space→time; negative→positive), and it helps avoid routinised translation (automatically using the same equivalent for a specific word on every occasion, regardless of context). Modulation can be used with individual words or longer utterances.

遅い!

About time!

ゆずり車線 (highway sign)

Slower traffic (The translation focuses on the speed, rather than giving way.)

車内ではマナーモードなどに切り替えて下さい。 (sign on the Shinkansen)

Please turn off ringing tone. (The translation focuses on silencing the phone, rather than switching to vibration mode.)

私みたいな女じゃなくて、もっとやさしくてちゃんとした女…

(江國香織『きらきらひかる』 1991: 53)

Not a woman like me—someone nicer, less messed-up.

(Shimokawa, Twinkle Twinkle, 2003: 41)

The Japanese seem to have something of a preference for expressions that take a negative form, compared with a more ‘linguistically posit...